Zhang Shan
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Zhang Shan (张山) is the first woman shooter to win the double trap gold medal in Olympic history and the sole woman with such an honor in history.
Born in 1968 in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, Zhang was enrolled in a children's sports school during her childhood. At the beginning, she learned to play basketball. When she was 16 and half years old, she began to use a gun, and her performance was outstanding. In 1984, she became a member of the Sichuan provincial shooting team and was selected for the national team for intensive training in 1989.
Zhang Shan scored 200 hits out of 200 shots in the qualifying round of the double trap event at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, turning the term "100 percent accuracy" into reality. Then, she won the gold medal. Her gold medal carried special weight, because double trap was a mixed event open to both sexes. Zhang Shan thus became the first woman shooter to win the double trap gold medal in Olympic history and the sole woman with such an honor in history, as double trap was divided into two separate events at subsequent Olympic Games. She not only performed the miracle of a woman shooter giving no way to the male shooters, but also became the first Chinese woman to break the European monopoly on this event.
The 1992 Olympic Games marked the first summit she climbed in her career. However, just at the peak of her career, the event was removed from the Olympic program by the International Olympic Committee. It was not until 1997, five years later, that the event was readmitted. Zhang Shan also came back and captured the gold medal at the World Cup in Cairo in 1998, thus taking an extra ticket for the Chinese shooting team's entry in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Zhang Shan is a typical girl born in Sichuan Province. She is honest, sincere, resolute, independent, and straightforward. When in competition, she fired every shot resolutely and accurately. When asked what would make her the happiest, she said frankly: taking a gold medal is not what would make me the happiest. Getting married is what would make me the most happy.
